Sleeping Through The End Of The World

1

TW: medical equipment, syringes

"Eddie honey i'm so sorry" she sounded so calm. How is she so calm?! my mind is racing at a million miles an hour. How?! Why?! "Don't worry E Bee, we'll see you again" she cupped my face in her hands as if she was holding her most precious possession in her hands. "You have five minutes. Say your goodbyes" A voice boomed from behind us. My mother handed me a small box covered in a flowery pattern before wrapping her arms around me protectively and pulling me close to her chest. I felt the added weight of my my dad and my two sisters join the huddle. It was warm and it felt like home. You know that indescribable feeling of "this is where i'm meant to be." Our short moment of peace ended abruptly as their weight was lifted off of me and I heard my family's screams filling the hall. "EDDIE" "EDS" "I LOVE YOU E BEE. WE'LL MISS YOU" "WE'LL SEE YOU SOON ED!" They shouted as guards pulled them away by their shoulders. I stayed on the floor for a few minutes before I was yanked onto my feet, I didn't protest. I knew what was coming.

I gripped the small box tightly in my hand and stumbled alongside whoever had pulled me up. He now had his hand on my shoulder, leading me along so I didn't stray off route. I'm guessing he's a man. All the guards are men. Although, I'm not really sure why, all the women I know around here are 10 times more competent than the men. But I guess that's why they're not guards. They have enough sense to not work for the government that wants half of us wiped out. Dad used to say the virus was developed by the government, that it was some sort of "bio weapon" as he called it. I don't think he's necessarily right, but I wouldn't put it past them. I don't think I'll ever know how the virus came about. I mean, I'm about to die anyway so what difference would knowing really make.

The man tightened his grasp on my shoulder as we turned the corner, causing me to wince as his fingers dug into my shoulder blade. Still, I stayed silent. I didn't want to make a fuss. That would only make what is about to happen even more painful.

I slipped the box into my pocket, mostly to hide it from he guard, but also to diminish my temptation to open it. "I'll see you again" I whispered, even though I knew my family couldn't hear me. They would be on one of the lower levels, getting shooed into freezers where they'd live until the government find a way to stop the virus. If it's not one of the "conspiracies" dad keeps going on about. He would always pride himself on his knowledge of these. I say that like he's the one being put under and tagged for testing.

They've introduced a new method of dealing with the virus. Everyone gets tested, and if your body won't survive in the freeze chambers, you're used for experiments instead. You're "doing your part for the world" as they put it. That's why so many people actually agree to it. Not that any of us have a choice. If you test negative, they put you under and etch your name into your wrist (that's mostly for tracking purposes. Still not very pleasant all the same.) Someone at school told me they take you apart completely and then stick you back together, like you would an old car. I don't think he was telling the truth, but I don't quite fancy waking up one day knowing that some scientists in a lab somewhere that I will never know the location of, have seen my insides. I'm trying to think about that prospect.

We come abruptly to a stop outside a metal door, which I'm assuming leads to one of their labs. I raise my line of sight to look up at the guard. He's more scrawny looking than I expected, he's wearing glasses with thin, black frames and his hair is relatively long compared to that of the other guards I've seen so far. He looks almost friendly. I shake my head and look back down at the floor. You can't trust the guards, that's what dad told me. My dad didn't trust most people, and I don't blame him.

"In there," he motioned to the door in-front of us. His voice was relatively high pitched, which didn't surprise me. Most of guards spoke in a sort of low hum, but he wasn't like the other guards.

"I haven't seen anyone like you around here before," I mumbled. I wasn't going to speak up to a guard that was leading me to my death.

"You won't have, I'm a scientist. We don't normally leave the upper floors, unless we're collecting someone," he raised his eyebrows at me. I was who he was supposed to collect.

"Right. I see," my voice trailed away. This was really it. I'll never see them again.

I stepped tentatively through the door. Everything surrounding me was a bright white colour and the lights in there nearly blinded me. I shuffled slowly into the centre of the room, which I assumed to be a lab. I looked eft and right, like what you're supposed to do before crossing a road. There was a sort of hospital bed in the middle if the lab, surrounding it were shelves of various different coloured liquids and powders. Another of the scientists stood in the corner, he motion at me to sit on the bed and so I did. I wasn't aiming to be difficult. Maybe if I'm nice to him in my last moments of living, he'll put me back together and revive me like the kid at school said he might. At least that way I'll be able to see my family again.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing my palms together with stress, tangling and untangling my fingers until my knuckles went white as the scientist examined me.

"lie back, this won't hurt," this one had a lower voice. More similar to the guards voices. I wasn't about to start resisting now, so I swung my legs up onto the bed. The man placed his hand on my forehead and pushed me back so I was lying, stretched out on the bed.

He spun around on his chair and wheeled across the room. He was in one of those office chairs that everyone would fight over in school, and when the teacher left the room you'd all wheel around the room, crashing into each other and laughing. Only he wasn't laughing. He slid open a drawer and took out a small tube. He wheeled back over to me and pulled the cap off of the tube, making direct eye contact with me as he did so.

"Just stay calm and It'll be fine," he sounded as though talking to me was a chore. Like he had more important things to do that kill a child he didn't even know. Mum would've told me to be less blunt about it. He has more important things to do than put down a child he didn't even know. The scientist pressed the tube onto my leg and pushed his thumb down on the end and I felt a sharp pain in my thigh. It was cold. At first only my thigh was cold, and then my whole leg, then it was my whole body. I felt sick and completely numb at the same time. Everything around me spun, making the lights on the ceiling looks like fireworks. The brightness burned my eyes.

"GET HIM OUT NOW!"